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Sunday, June 22, 2014

Targeting fans: Jihadists get World Cup fever

It’s not just soccer fans whose football fever soars during
a World Cup. So does that of militant Islamists and jihadists with deadly consequences.
Scores of fans have been killed since this month’s kick-off of the Cup in attacks
in Iraq, Kenya and Nigeria.

The attacks by the likes of the Islamic state in Iraq and
Syria (ISIS), Al Shabab in Somalia and Boko Haram appear to have become a World
Cup fixture with similar random slaughter having occurred during the 2010
tournament in South Africa.

They reflect the diversity of opinion among jihadists on the
merits of soccer as well as a degree of opportunism among all jihadists,
irrespective of their attitude towards the beautiful game, in exploiting its
popularity whether by seeking to maximise publicity by targeting fans during
the tournament or using it as a recruitment tool.

The attacks occurred against the backdrop of a series of
statements and fatwas, religious opinions, by militant clerics, often Salafis
who seek to emulate to the degree possible 7th century life at the
time of the Prophet Mohammed and his immediate successors who are not jihadists,
condemning soccer as an infidel game that is intended to divert the faithful
from their religious obligations or create divisiveness.

What amounts to an anti-World Cup campaign remains however
an uphill battle for anti-soccer jihadists and Salafis in the Middle East and
Africa, a region that is as passionate about the game as it is about its
adherence in whatever form to Islamic beliefs. The
Saudi Gazette reported that Saudi families in the run-up to the holy month
of Ramadan that starts next week were preoccupied with balancing their shopping
needs with ensuring that they don’t miss a World Cup match.

In stark contrast to four years ago, when the Saudi clergy
rolled out in front of cafes where men gathered to watch World Cup matches
mobile mosques on the backs of trucks to ensure that fans performed their daily
prayers at the obligatory time, malls in Jeddah and facilities associated with
the Jeddah Ghair Festival have this year set up screens broadcasting games as
they are played in Brazil.

Source: # ولايةصلاحالدين
(#Wilayat Salaheddin)

Pictures distributed by ISIL of Iraqi soldiers summarily executed
in Tikrit last week show men who often unsuccessfully donned soccer jerseys,
some with the images of German Turkish player Mesut Ozil or Sweden’s Zlatan
Ibrahimovic who is of Bosnian extraction to escape the jihadist advance. In a morbid
gesture, ISIS sent a video link of the beheading of an off-duty policeman to
the Twitter hashtags #WorldCup and #Worldcup 2014 with the words: “This is our
ball…it is made of skin.”

A café in the Kenyan coastal town of Mpeketoni where fans
had gathered this week to watch a World Cup match was among the targets of Al
Shabab gunmen who killed 49 people in attacks on several targets in the town.
The attack was reminiscent of the bombing in 2010 of two sites in the Ugandan
capital of Kampala where fans had come together to enjoy the Cup’s final.

Similarly, the group which at the time controlled substantial
chunks of Somalia had threatened to execute anyone found watching World Cup
matches on television. Somali players and sports journalists have been targeted
by Al Shabab in the four years between the South Africa and Brazil World Cups. The
Kampala bombings prompted the US embassy in the Ugandan capital to this month
warn Americans to avoid soccer-viewing venues.

Nigerian police marked the opening of this month’s World Cup
with a warning that owners of bars, video halls and mass open-air
soccer-screening venues and fans should be vigilant against potential attacks
by Boko Haram. Authorities in Adamawa and Plateau states and the Federal
Capital Territory went a step further by banning screenings of World Cup
matches in public venues. Like elsewhere in Africa, those venues are the only
way for fans who can’t afford cable television subscriptions to see World Cup
games and other major soccer matches live.

At least 21 fans were killed and 27 others injured barely a
week after the security measures were announced when Boko Haram bombed a venue
in Damaturu where fans had gathered to watch the match between Brazil and
Mexico. A bombing a week before the announcement in Mubi in Adamawa state killed
another 14 fans. Three people were killed last month in an attack on a soccer
viewing venue in Jos, the capital of Plateau state and two people died in April
when gunmen opened fire on a soccer-viewing venue in Yobe state.

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University. He is also co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute
for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile